Error message when attempting to play back a music file

srcb2 wrote on 8/16/2025, 10:07 AM

I have Audio Cleaning Lab 2013 installed on my Windows 7 machine and recently this error message popped up while attempting to listen to a music file: "The wave shape device: speakers / headphones Realtek cannot be opened for playback. Reason? There is not enough memory to perform this task. Quit one or more applicatins to increase available memory, then try again." What applications are they referring to? Could this be due to an overloaded buffer? I will say this: I have been editing this file for some time - several weeks, to be exact - and have been saving updates. I've had this program since 2015-ish and love it.

Comments

SP. wrote on 8/16/2025, 10:19 AM

@srcb2 It could be that the software runs out of RAM. On Windows a 32 bit application can only use about 1.4 GB of RAM before it runs out. But I wouldn't be surprised if this is a generic error message and this is not really the cause of your problem.

Does it help if you restart the computer by selecting the Restart option and not the Shut down option?

johnebaker wrote on 8/16/2025, 3:14 PM

@srcb2

The error message you are getting is usually a result of the Windows drivers for the Realtek sound card being damaged or corrupt.

Try re-installing the drivers if you can get them from Realtek

Is this the Dell XPS 8700 PC mentioned in your previous topic in 2015 ?

If so, and it still has the original hard drive installed, then it may be that the hard drive is beginning to exhibit signs of failure, possibly starting to shed the magnetic coating.

John EB
Forum Moderator